Chef Jamie Oliver's Food Tube: A Recipe for YouTube Success

Chef Jamie Oliver's Food Tube: A Recipe for YouTube Success

With more than 600,000 subscribers, chef Jamie Oliver's Food Tube is one of
YouTube's most successful food channels. But that wasn't always the case. For
years, the channel's viewership remained flat and engagement was low despite
Oliver's celebrity in traditional media. With the launch of Food Tube, the channel
undertook a dramatic overhaul of its programming strategy and audience development
techniques, which had a major impact on the channel's views (1.8 million monthly)
and subscribers.

Put Google research and insight behind your thinking

For several years, Jamie Oliver's channel functioned less as a YouTube channel and
more as a platform for videos embedded on jamieoliver.com. The upload schedule was
erratic, ranging from many uploads on a single day to more than 18 months with no
uploads at all.

In total, the years of ad hoc uploading had gained the channel 4.5 million video
views and 51,895 subscribers.1 Not bad, but could the channel do better?

[[inline-image-1]]

Here we outline three key strategies that drove the Jamie Oliver Food Tube channel
to its current success:

Engaged fans with a breakthrough launch

On December 7th, 2012, Oliver's team uploaded a teaser to preview the launch of his
Food Tube channel. The team decided to hook the audience first and communicate
about the new channel later.

Which would catch your attention—a standard trailer or the chance to slap a
celebrity?

Food Tube launched on January 21st, 2013, with a 30-minute live show. Kicking off
the launch of a new channel with a big event is an excellent opportunity to build
buzz and a great way to promote the programming schedule to your new audience.

It definitely helps to have a celebrity who's not afraid to reach out to other
YouTubers and collaborate with them to make fantastic videos. Oliver was willing to
be parodied (Sorted Food), take part in world record attempts (GWRomg) and be
kidnapped and tied up (Epic Meal Time).

[[inline-image-2]]

As we can see from the graphs2 above, the collaborations helped ensure the launch's
success, particularly the collaboration with Epic Meal Time and its large fan base
and outlandish videos. It drove both traffic and subscribers from outside of
Oliver's usual audience.

Made regular content work with an in-demand celebrity

The Food Tube team devised the strand "Jamie Presents" to showcase the best cooking
talent on the internet. Oliver introduces the chefs and explains why they're worth
watching. But to make the strand work, the featured chef—and Oliver's
endorsement--must be authentic.

"YouTube has been amazing for allowing me to draw in disparate talent."

—Jamie Oliver, Broadcast Magazine3

As the Food Tube team has expanded, so have the chefs' YouTube profiles. Now all
the chefs have their own channels that contain original content as well as blooper
reels, deleted scenes and playlists of their favorite videos. This allows the chefs
to interact with their audience and develop their individual voices on the Jamie
Oliver channel.

The Food Tube team also decided to repurpose TV content to help boost its content
offering. But when this was done before, the channel hadn't exactly set the world
on fire. So what's different this time?

"Don't try and hide the fact that it's from the TV show; people are smart and
will always know. You have to be transparent, brand it and tie it into your
original content."

—Matt Shaw, Food Tube producer

[[inline-image-3]]

Uploads were unpredictable in the pre-Food Tube days. Now all uploads are highly
contextualized with optimized custom thumbnails and editorialized end cards.
Uploads are also seasonal (cocktails in July and sausages in November) and used
sparingly so they don't overwhelm the feed.

Built personal connections with his audience

Despite the repurposed content and the Food Tube team, the channel can always use
more Oliver. So what else could Food Tube deliver considering the constraints on
the lead presenter's time?

[[inline-image-4]]

A few months after the launch, the strand "What's Jamie Eating Today?" was created
to give his loyal audience a glimpse into his daily life. Quickly vlogged from his
phone and sent to the Food Tube team for minimal editing and branding, the clips
feature Oliver plus his team and children chatting about his latest meal.

The fast turnaround also means Oliver can comment on an event or the latest food
trend and have the video uploaded within hours. The result is a fun-to-watch,
low-cost video that places minimal constraints on Oliver's time.

It's really important on YouTube to listen to the audience and be single-minded,
agile and responsive.

—Jamie Oliver, Broadcast Magazine

Looking at the progress of the Jamie Oliver channel over the last few years, it's
clear celebrity-hosted channels can prove enormously successful, but there are no
easy wins. The pre-Food Tube days demonstrate that a celebrity's name alone is not
enough to build a sustainable audience.

For Food Tube, understanding the importance of collaboration, authentic presenters
and repurposing content in a strategic way has paid dividends.